Increasingly, commercial and residential structures are being outfitted with roof based structures such as solar photovoltaic or thermal installations which require fastening and support systems to securely hold the roof based structure in place. In many cases these installations are being utilized by homeowners and businesses in an effort to reduce energy costs. Typically, such structures may be secured to a roof using devices such as an L-foot attachment, wherein the horizontal portion of the L-foot is secured to structural elements on the roof and the vertical portion is secured to the structure being attached, such as solar panels or solar water collectors.
The methods used to install L-foot type attachments generally necessitates penetration of the roof with a roof fastener such as a screw in order to secure the L-foot attachment to the roof. In the past, various methods have been utilized to seal such a penetration to prevent water leakage into the roof. Such methods have included utilizing roofing sealant and flashing over the L-foot attachment. However, sealing penetration with roofing sealant may deteriorate over time and/or crack. Utilizing flashing often requires that the flash itself be nailed to the roof, which again creates new roof penetrations and potential water leakage points. It would be desirable to have roof attachment systems which do not include portions which create penetrations.
In a similar vein, the economic model for many of the roofing installations of structures used to generate energy have involved ownership of the structures by a third party. In cases where it is necessary for the third part to remove a structure, the process may be very involved when the support structures have utilized components which penetrate the roof. It may be expensive and time consuming to remove such an energy generating structure once it has been installed. Hereto, it would be desirable to have systems that do not need to have penetrations repaired and may be rapidly uninstalled.
Because of these inherent problems with the current related art, there is a need for a new and improved roof attachment system that does not create penetrations to a roofing system.